Four Friends Zitara Viognier

The Four Friends winery has over 40 hectares of vineyards in the Thracian Valley, the best wine growing region of Bulgaria. Our estate is nestled in the folds of the landscape near the village of Gorno Botevo, east of the district centre of Stara Zagora. The first vineyards of the varieties Merlot, Cabernet Sauvignon, Cabernet Franc and Petit Verdot were planted back in 2006, following a careful study of the terrain, the climatic and soil conditions of the region. All the winery’s vineyards started bearing fruit as early as 2010; they are harvested by hand and extra care is taken to avoid damage to the grapes, which are sorted manually to make sure that only healthy and clean berries will make it to the crushing tub. The wines at Four Friends are made using classic methods with an exceptionally high share of manual labour, which, to a large extent, determines the quality of the wine. The winery has a total production capacity of 400 thousand litres annually, and a bottling capacity of some 300 thousand bottles. Like all small-scale boutique wineries, we use ‘vat’ type fermenters to make high-quality wines. This allows for the entire production process to be controlled manually, which is essential for the mellow taste and rich aroma of our wines. The wine is then left to mature in oak barrels, which are topped up regularly while our cellar master carefully monitors the qualitative changes occurring in the wine as a result of oaking. The winery has a modern quality control lab with state-of-the-art equipment. Our oenologists trace the dynamics of the growth process of our grapes by periodic analyses of their sugar content, titratable acids and pH.